Yes, I am trapped in a youtube worm-hole right now, I’m OK with it.
Category: Media and Culture,
Seth Brings Jon Snow to a Dinner Party
“I’d to apologize for the way I’ve been acting. Work has been very stressful.”
What Ever Happened to Mass Incarceration Reform? | Brennan Center for Justice
With the confirmation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who ushered in a 1980’s throw-back Department of Justice directive on low-level drug offenses, it remains unclear whether there might be a return to a bipartisan approach to criminal justice reform in the 115th Congress.
…According to a recent Brennan Center analysis, even as crime declined by 10 percent from 1991-1994, prison populations exploded pre-1994 by 400 percent and doubled in the decade following the law’s passage. With today’s well-documented growth in state and federal prison population, most people, including President Bill Clinton, accept that the 1994 incentives he championed were a mistake, rewarding states to build and fill more prisons.
Indeed, in the more than two decades since the passage of the 1994 Crime Bill, the evidence is overwhelming that resulting incarceration rates are harming families, communities, and federal and state budgets. Despite having only 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States has 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated at an annual cost of roughly $80 billion.
In 2007, Texas got smart and increased the availability of drug addiction and mental health treatment for non-violent drug offenders. Then, in 2011, the Texas legislature passed legislation to allow drug offenders to reduce their sentences by completing educational programs. The result was stark — 14 percent reduction in crime, 8 percent reduction in incarceration, saving $444 million in corrections expenses and $20 million direct savings for taxpayers. Recent reports indicate that Texas is on pace to close 8 prisons by year’s end.
By enacting new laws to eliminate some mandatory sentences for low-level property crimes and improving the parole and probation release process, South Carolina saw a 38 percent drop in violent crime and an 18 percent in their prison population, saving the state $18 million over four years.
What Ever Happened to Mass Incarceration Reform? | Brennan Center for Justice
That time when the ethically correct thing and fiscally responsible thing to do are the exact same thing…
MLMs like LuLaRoe are sending people into debt and psychological crisis
…points out that when you onboard someone underneath you, especially if they live in your town or are in your friendship group, you are essentially creating a competitor. It’s as if you open a Subway sandwich shop and then encourage your neighbor to open a Subway right next door—and everyone is already sick of sandwiches.
…Whether they realize it or not, consultant leaders often use time-honored cult tactics of denial and blame to keep women within their sorority. A famous series of experiments from the 1950s conducted by Soloman Asch in England showed that three out of four people will deny evidence right in front of them if the majority says it’s not true. In the study, individuals were placed in groups where they were constantly contradicted by other members. When this happened over a length of time, they would start to agree with the majority—even though it was clear that the opposite was true. In MLMs, “you’re trained to avoid people who question whether this is a viable business or not,” Brooks says. “Which is exactly the same technique that cults use—they try to isolate you from people who question your belief system. I’ve been contacted by a number of people who deal with cult survivors, and some of their clients are former MLM people.”
Even when consultants wake up to the fact they’ve been hoodwinked, many don’t warn their friends to stay away. That’s because if you speak out against any of LuLaRoe’s rules or mishaps, the community could publicly shame and harass you for being negative. “I can’t believe you call yourself a Christian,” one retailer wrote to someone trying to sound the alarm. “Where is the Jesus in you? I have to block you due to your constant-gross-delusional-uneducated opinions of LLR.” If you reveal you are struggling to make sales, you might be told to stop playing the victim, that you’re not putting in enough effort, to be more enthusiastic, and, of course, to buy more inventory.
…In other words, it’s not the system that’s broken—you’re just not trying hard enough.
…Stern was taught ways to unload her unwanted stock on unsuspecting buyers by her group’s leaders. “You have to be creative about how you sell it,” she says. Stern would bundle 10 pairs of leggings together—nine less desirable ones and one unicorn pattern—into “mystery sales,” where the first 10 women to comment “sold” would purchase a random pair, but only one would get the coveted leggings. She feels guilty about using this psychological gambling trick, but it worked.
…For a portion of independent retailers, LuLaRoe is to economic opportunity as Goop is to wellness: It’s for ladies who already have it all. The ability to throw down $12,000 to start a LuLaRoe business and work 30 hours a week sometimes comes from a place of privilege, not desperation.
…This isn’t a story about leggings, however. It’s not even a story about LuLaRoe. This is the story of rural and suburban disenfranchisement and the MLMs that offer desperate American women a chance at clawing their way out. They’ve become part of the fabric of suburban America, as cherished and inevitable as barbecues and the county fair. Regional newspapers are rife with announcements for fundraisers for children with cancer and elementary-school fetes that promote LuLaRoe pop-up shops. Not buying a pair of leggings can be read as being unsupportive of your friends—or not chipping in for a local kid’s chemotherapy. It’s a genius manipulation of rural and suburban American societal norms.
MLMs like Avon and LuLaRoe are sending people into debt and psychological crisis — Quartz
hmmmm
(As Goop is to wellness… Lolololololol!)
Caitlyn Jenner Wears a MAGA Hat After Criticizing Trump’s Transgender Military Ban
“People need to stop giving Caitlyn the benefit of the doubt.”
Caitlyn Jenner Wears a MAGA Hat After Criticizing Trump’s Transgender Military Ban | Teen Vogue
No, people need to stop expecting everyone who is trans to be a shining pinnacle of enlightenment. Trans people are people. Some people are idiots. Some people are assholes. Some people are both. …And that includes trans people, because as we just establish trans people are people. (duh!)
…And stop giving celebrities more credit than you would anyone else. Caitlyn Jenner was married to a fucking Kardashian for fucks sake. Why anyone would expect more than moronic bullshit from her is beyond the realm of logic.
Unlearning the myth of American innocence
I know why this came as a shock to me then, at the age of 22, and it wasn’t necessarily because he said I was sick, though that was part of it. It was because he kept calling me that thing: “white American”. In my reaction I justified his accusation. I knew I was white, and I knew I was American, but it was not what I understood to be my identity. For me, self-definition was about gender, personality, religion, education, dreams. I only thought about finding myself, becoming myself, discovering myself – and this, I hadn’t known, was the most white American thing of all.
I still did not think about my place in the larger world, or that perhaps an entire history – the history of white Americans – had something to do with who I was. My lack of consciousness allowed me to believe I was innocent, or that white American was not an identity like Muslim or Turk.
…American exceptionalism did not only define the US as a special nation among lesser nations; it also demanded that all Americans believe they, too, were somehow superior to others. How could I, as an American, understand a foreign people, when unconsciously I did not extend the most basic faith to other people that I extended to myself? This was a limitation that was beyond racism, beyond prejudice and beyond ignorance. This was a kind of nationalism so insidious that I had not known to call it nationalism; this was a self-delusion so complete that I could not see where it began and ended, could not root it out, could not destroy it.
…American exceptionalism had declared my country unique in the world, the one truly free and modern country, and instead of ever considering that that exceptionalism was no different from any other country’s nationalistic propaganda, I had [internalized*] this belief.
…By the end of my first year abroad, I read US newspapers differently. I could see how alienating they were to foreigners, the way articles spoke always from a position of American power, treating foreign countries as if they were America’s misbehaving children. I listened to my compatriots with critical ears: the way our discussion of foreign policy had become infused since September 11 with these officious, official words, bureaucratic corporate military language: collateral damage, imminent threat, freedom, freedom, freedom.
…“We are told it is the greatest country on earth. The thing is, we will never reconsider that narrative the way you are doing just now, because to us, that isn’t propaganda, that is truth. And to us, that isn’t nationalism, it’s patriotism. And the thing is, we will never question any of it because at the same time, all we are being told is how free-thinking we are, that we are free. So we don’t know there is anything wrong in believing our country is the greatest on earth. The whole thing sort of convinces you that a collective consciousness in the world came to that very conclusion.”
“Wow,” a friend once replied. “How strange. That is a very quiet kind of fascism, isn’t it?”
Unlearning the myth of American innocence | US news | The Guardian
* = American exceptionalism extends to spelling. LOLOLOLOLOL
Trump Adviser Suggests Minnesota Mosque Attack Could Have Been Faked ‘By The Left’
Trump has yet to denounce the weekend explosion at the Islamic center because he awaits details on who did it, Sebastian Gorka says.
Trump Adviser Suggests Minnesota Mosque Attack Could Have Been Faked ‘By The Left’ | HuffPost
Deluded paranoid racist is as deluded paranoid racist does?
Louisiana assistant police chief resigns in disgrace after sharing racist meme on Facebook
The text accompanying the image read: “When your daughter’s first crush is a little negro boy.”
Louisiana assistant police chief resigns in disgrace after sharing racist meme on Facebook
What idiots don’t understand about the first amendment and free speech is that it protects your right to say things, it doesn’t protect you from the consequences of people hearing that shit you said.
Plus, this guy is a developmentally delayed dinosaur who shouldn’t be working with the public, let alone in law enforcement.
F*ck You Billabong. Seriously, f*ck you.
This is what you have to offer us. This is how you, as a company, see women, and it is also what you are trying to sell us about ourselves. Billabong makes products for men, who go out there like badasses and catch awesome waves, and also for women, who basically just lie around uncomfortably, waiting to be looked at and desired.This is what your bikinis are for, apparently. For display, not for action.
This sh*t is powerful. This layout, this choice representation of who Billabong thinks men are, and who it thinks women are. This sh*t matters.
…We get enough of this sh*t elsewhere, I assure you. We don’t need it from you too. So show me some badass (and beautiful, if you must) women out there shredding waves and having fun on the beach. Show me what is possible for me, as a woman, if I buy your products. Sell me that dream. Isn’t that what this whole business is about anyway?
F*ck You Billabong. Seriously, f*ck you. – Women 2.0
Mmmmhmmm
I’m a woman in computer science. Let me ladysplain the Google memo to you.
Don’t be taken in by the memo’s faux-reasonable tone.
I’m a woman in computer science. Let me ladysplain the Google memo to you. – Vox
mmmhmmm.
An artist replaced the men in these classic Westerns with women. The images are awesome.
Artist Felice House wanted to spark a conversation about how we define a hero.
An artist replaced the men in these classic Westerns with women. The images are awesome.
very cool
New Orleans flooded as pumps failed, worrying residents about what will happen when the next hurricane hits
Residents worry the city’s infrastructure is poised to fail: “If we get hit by another Katrina, the city will be gone.”
… thunderstorm dropped as much as nine inches of rain in just four hours. The ensuing flood overwhelmed the city’s pump system and covered much of central New Orleans in several feet of water, taking 14 hours to drain and prompting 200 “life-threatening” emergency calls, according to city records.
…Unlike during Hurricane Katrina, the problem over the weekend wasn’t the 133 miles of levees and flood walls that protect New Orleans from the tidal surges of the Gulf of Mexico or Lake Pontchartrain, which hangs over the northern and eastern edge of the city. Instead, parts of New Orleans were underwater because the city’s hundreds of miles of drains and pumps couldn’t bail rainwater fast enough.
Though the water finally receded this week, the aftermath has thrown the New Orleans government and its municipal water and sewage authority into turmoil, reviving long-standing concerns that natural disasters here have been made worse by inconsistent leadership.
…the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans promised that all 121 drainage pumps were working properly during the storm. They said the flooding was simply caused by too much rain for the system to handle.
By Tuesday, as community skepticism deepened, the board acknowledged that eight pumps were either broken or out of service for maintenance when the rain began. Power shortages also hampered pump operations in some neighborhoods.
As a result, pumps in some hard-hit areas were operating at half of capacity, according to Joseph Becker, the water board’s superintendent.
…In an uptown neighborhood, some of the flooding might also have been exacerbated by a Corps of Engineers project designed to limit future flooding. Contractors digging new drainage culverts left three 70-foot holes in metal panels that lead to the Peoples Avenue Canal, allowing water to back up into the neighborhood, said Col. Michael N. Clancy, commander of the corps’ New Orleans district.
…Residents say many storm drains and canals are too clogged with debris to be effective. At Tuesday’s council meeting, public works officials said the city has only enough money to clear 68 of the 1,300 miles of canals this year.
The tone of some of the officials and experts in this story is obnoxiously counter-productive. Make the systems in place work properly already.
A Pharmacist Is Caught Adding A ‘Sexist Surcharge’ For The Morning-After Pill
[Backwards, sexist asshole] says the high price will keep women from using it ‘inappropriately.’
A Pharmacist Is Caught Adding A ‘Sexist Surcharge’ For The Morning-After Pill | GOOD
What a dink.
…But the “Just Say Non!” commercial is amazeballs!
What our politics has lost with Metiria Turei’s resignation
Just over three weeks after making an emotional admission at the Greens conference, Metiria Turei has resigned as her party’s co-leader. Young Greens co-convener Meg Williams pays tribute.
What our politics has lost with Metiria Turei’s resignation | The Spinoff
Sigh….
Mueller, several team members gave up million-dollar jobs to work on special counsel investigation
The Justice Department released personal financial disclosures for several special counsel team members.
hmmmm
Fewer Passengers Bumped by U.S. Airlines After Dragging Case
A raft of airline policy changes prompted by the high-profile case of a man who was injured while being dragged off a plane in Chicago earlier this year have had a dramatic result: airlines reported the lowest level of involuntary passenger bumpings in history.
Fewer Passengers Bumped by U.S. Airlines After Dragging Case – Bloomberg
Funny how the impossible becomes possible when the alternative is losing money.
Stephen Miller slammed for $1M condo after ‘cosmopolitan’ jab
The back-and-forth featured the [Miller] suggesting the journalist was somehow blinded by his privilege, though Miller himself came under fire Monday after the Washington Post reported that he lives at one of the capital’s “poshest addresses.”
…Miller, through a company based at the same place as his father’s real estate firm, was 28 and working as a Senate staffer in 2014 when he bought the condo for $973,000, the newspaper reported.
Stephen Miller slammed for $1M condo after ‘cosmopolitan’ jab – NY Daily News
He didn’t buy that on a Senate staffer’s salary… So basically beyond Miller being a hypocritical douche-bag, he’s also a Daddy’s boy. What a loser!
So, about all that plastic in the ocean…
Every 11 years, our production of plastic doubles, and over the coming 11 years we’ll produce more plastic than we’ve made since we started.
…In 2015, a paper published in the journal Science estimated that somewhere between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year. The researchers arrived at this figure after estimating how much plastic waste every coastal country in the world produces, and then calculated how much could wash into the sea from open dumps and improperly secured landfills. The scientists guess that this amounts to between 15 to 40 percent of all disposed plastic.
…Henderson Island, a deserted atoll in the middle of the southern Pacific Ocean. ….where the highest density of plastic waste anywhere on the planet [is.] …37.7 million pieces had washed up and spread out over the uninhabited island, and that as many as 13,300 new pieces arrive every day.
…five “garbage patches,” the accumulation zones of plastic that form at the ocean’s five subtropical gyres.
…the North Pacific Gyre jettisons about 50 percent of its contents every orbit, which takes about three years. That means the plastic leaves the gyre and will either end up on shore, or in another gyre.
So, about all that plastic in the ocean…
Arguing that clean-up efforts aren’t worth pursuing because we need to stop the plastic at the source is cranky old bullshit. Of course stopping it at the source would be ideal but until that happens clean up is also a good idea and something we should be trying to do. Dismissing clean up ideas out of hand because in an ideal world we would stop the source of the problem is ridiculous and defeatist. The cranky old asshole spouting such unhelpful negativity crap need to sit down and shut the fuck up. Or maybe choke on a big swirling mass of mass of floating plastic. Either way, just fucking shut the hell up.
‘A declaration of war on freedom of speech’
Left-wing Israeli NGO defends Arabic network – but Arab states back up Israeli government’s claims network promotes anti-Semitism.
‘A declaration of war on freedom of speech’ – Israel National News
Fucking a… As an American I hardly have the right to talk but Israel’s policies can be so freaking racist it is stunning.
How one man built a $51m theme park for his daughter
Gordon Hartman [realized] there were no parks where his daughter Morgan, who is disabled, could play. So he decided to build one.
…The park, called Morgan’s Wonderland, cost $34m (£26m) and opened in 2010. Attractions include a fully-accessible Ferris wheel, adventure playground and miniature train. Visitors regularly tell Hartman it is the first time they’ve been able to experience such attractions.
There is also a carousel with specially designed chariots for wheelchairs that go up and down alongside the animals.
…Since it opened Morgan’s Wonderland has received over a million visitors from 67 countries and from all 50 American states. A third of staff have disabilities and entrance is free to any guest with a condition.
…”We open every year knowing we’re going to lose over $1m (£750,000) and we need to recover that through fundraising and partners.”
This year, the theme park was expanded with the opening of Morgan’s Inspiration Island, a fully-accessible water park.
“Fewer people were visiting in July because the wheelchairs got too hot. So we decided to create a water park next door,” Hartman says.
Parts of the island use warm water, which helps visitors with muscular problems. Waterproof [motorized] wheelchairs are provided, which run on compressed air rather than batteries. There is also an accessible river boat ride.
How one man built a $51m theme park for his daughter – BBC News
This is amazingly, amazingly cool.
Heroes, Martyrs, And Myths: The Battle For The Rights Of Transgender Athletes
The history of transgender athletes tells us that the U.S. and the world still have a long way to go to achieving true equality.
Heroes, Martyrs, And Myths: The Battle For The Rights Of Transgender Athletes – VICE Sports
Got a problem with transgender athletes? Having trouble comprehending the bone and muscle mass changes that take place during transistion? Or maybe you’re just a reactionary, backwards hater who is too closed minded to recognize the truth when the facts are laid bare in front of you. Either way…. you can’t argue with the fact that the IOC is among the least permissive organizations in teh world for anything it deems to be an advantage for athletes and the IOC allows trans athletes. So choke on that while you’re maintaining that it is a science or biology issue and not a bigotry issue.
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